Listen – we tend to like the things that hit us at an impressionable age. When I was toward the end of high school/early college I really got into French New Wave. I dug the breezy, jazzy attitude, the fashion, the cutting and shooting style and, yes, to a certain extent, I liked seeing French people babble about Marxism. Call me crazy, but I find it somehow quaint.
To that end, yes, I enjoyed this oft-bashed, somewhat-boring and very pretentious movie.
50% is cool enough. Fly-on-the-wall footage (in full magazine-length takes on an arcing dolly) of the Stones recording “Sympathy for the Devil.” Metallica: Some Kind of Monster may have nailed the “inside the studio” creation bit better, but this works, too.
The other half are these nonsensical skits. Black militants babbling and posing with guns. A pornographic bookstore with a weird Nazi meets Laugh-In thing going on. An interview with a waifish woman who only answers “yes.” And lots of graffitti and sloganeering. What can I say? I find this crap amusing. I don’t think you are supposed to listen to every word. Who could pay attention to all that?
I’ll not argue with anyone who calls this slap-dash pseudo-art. Because they may very well be right.
